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China's diving pigs delight and anger observers

Entrepreneurs said encouraging the pigs to exercise leads to healthier, better-tasting pork products.

By Elizabeth Shim

CHANGSHA, China, May 6 (UPI) -- China's swine farmers are not just producing pork – they're putting on a show with pigs that dive.

Photos of the animals leaping off platforms have been circulating on the Internet, and Chinese news reports are speculating that the country could do more to put leaping pigs in the global spotlight, The New York Times reported.

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A Chinese television segment of the pigs suspended in space, however, angered some observers.

"This was clearly animal abuse. It may well be the case that pigs like water, but not jumping into it from the top of a huge platform," one viewer stated online, according to RT.

Others agreed, describing the phenomenon as "disgusting" and "nauseating."

Shi Huang, a tourism official in the south-central province of Hunan, said the show does not entail abuse, since the pigs are "carefully trained to perform this special stunt."

The television footage showed the pigs being pushed off the bridge with a stick, jumping into the water then swimming toward the finish line as a crowd cheered nearby.

Other entrepreneurs said encouraging the pigs to exercise leads to healthier, better-tasting pork products.

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The Salon pig-breeding company in Hunan said it did consider taking pigs out for a jog – but tiny pig trotters and heaving swine bodies were not suitable for the exercise.

Yang Shiliu, a former researcher at the Hunan Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Institute, said the pigs become used to diving and eventually don't mind jumping into the water several feet below.

Initially, the pigs are not easily induced to jumping off a platform placed higher than the tallest Olympic diving platform, but pig farmers did not have trouble finding a solution.

According to Huang Demin, a farmer in Hunan, food incentives have worked for his pigs to take the first plunge.

Huang said one of his pigs now dives on signal and heads into the water "without a squeal."

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